Learning from the American Fundraising Model: A European Perspective March 2014 | Seite 10

02. Tough
times
in Hungary
Ferenc Hudecz, Rector
(2006 - 2010), Eötvös Loránd
University (Hungary),
Class of 2009
Hungary’s universities have had a tough few
years. On top of public funding cuts in the wake
of the financial crisis, a new government has
reduced higher education support, cutting the
number of state-funded undergraduate places
and requiring students to work in Hungary after
graduation. For Eötvös Loránd University, the
country’s largest university, this has prompted
an austerity drive of its own – but it has also led
to a search for new sources of funding.
Changes in government support have been
dramatic, says Ferenc Hudecz, the university’s rector between 2006 and 2010. There was
a time, he explains, when direct state funding
covered 75 percent of the university’s budget,
with indirect funding – in the form of grants for
specific projects – generating another 10 to 15
percent.
Today the picture looks very different. “It’s fallen by one third – that’s huge,” says Hudecz,

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C ON V ERS A T I ONS

now a professor in the university’s department
of organic chemistry.
In addition to rationalizing university operations, his response was to turn to companies
for funding, through contract research, and to
increase the number of European Union grant
applications.
When it comes to private donations, however,
fundraising has proved more challenging. “We
have a limited number of very rich individuals
in this country and they are not highly visible,”
Hudecz explains. “And those who are tend to
create foundations in their own names, focused
on their own interests.”
Nevertheless, the university has made progress
in attracting individual donors, particularly since
establishing an alumni network in 2007. It has
also encouraged individuals to sponsor fellowships for masters students – for modest sums,